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IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No: 227-01May 24, 2001

6,000 U.S., ALLIED FORCES LAUNCH JOINT PATRIOT '01

The National Guard is hosting Joint Patriot '01, a major reserve forces inter-service, combined military training exercise for air and ground forces. The month-long exercise will be held at several military sites across the United States, from May 31 to June 30, 2001. Joint Patriot '01 is the latest of the National Guard's Patriot series of exercises begun in 1995 to provide Guard and Reserve units with realistic joint field training.

Directed by the Air and Army National Guard, Joint Patriot '01 is a war fighting capability training exercise for more than 6,000 Air and Army National Guard members, and elements from the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and allied reserve forces from Britain and the Netherlands.

Joint Patriot '01 emphasizes joint interoperability to ensure that all personnel, regardless of their service, train within a complete battlefield environment. There will be live-fire and air, and ground maneuvers that center on the activation and mobilization of forces to support a joint theater campaign.

Joint Patriot '01 includes day and night operations and offers our U. S. Armed Forces the ability to train in the way they will fight in war. This year the exercise will take place at Fort Drum, N.Y.; the Combat Readiness Training Centers at Volk Field, Wis. and Alpena, Mich.; and the Utah Test and Training Range, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

Concurrently, the exercise permits testing of advanced command and control technology developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, N.Y. research site. Numerous technologies will be field tested including command and control systems, dynamic planning and targeting systems, sensor systems, and specialized next-generation communications systems. Joint Patriot '01 provides an opportunity for the United States and our allies to train together and jointly solve a wide range of real-time battlefield problems.

For more information, please contact Charlie Price, National Guard Bureau Public Affairs Office at (703) 607-2582.